Top 5 Female Marvel Heroes

Writer, movie lover, with a Marvel focus. Podcast "The Gospel According to Marvel" on iTunes. Follow me on twitter: @zaneEsanders

Looking over my last contest entry after posting it, I noticed the lack of diversity in general. This is partially because I am a white male that was looking for examples that I could see in myself, now or in the future; however, I should be able to find these same qualities in people besides white males. So, while I stand by my favorite top 5, because they are my favorites... I want to even the score a little by showing some love to other demographics, starting with the ladies. And while I'm at it I'll do a little fan-casting of my own.Without further ado, in no particular order...

5. Storm (Ororo Munroe)

With the psionic ability to manipulate weather patterns over limited areas, Storm's story is one of loss and survival. Ororo Monroe is the descendant of an ancient line of African priestesses, all of whom have white hair, blue eyes, and the potential to wield magic. Originally recruited into the X-Men in order to rescue Chalres Xavier's students, Storm was appointed leader of the team following the departure of former leader Cyclops after the apparent death of Jean.She is skilled at picking both locks and pockets, hand-to-hand combatant, and an excellent marksman with handguns.

Fun fact: Storm is married to T'Challa, the Black Panther.

Fan-cast: Alexandra Shipp has taken the role for the upcoming X-men: Apocalypse (and I'm sure she'll do fine), but my first choice would be Lupita Nyong'o.

Lupita Nyong'o

4. She-hulk (Jennifer Walters)

Jennifer Walters, the meek lawyer cousin of Bruce Banner, was shot and seriously wounded her on a day when her cousin was in town. Bruce gave her a blood transfusion, as no other donors of her blood type were available... or something like that. The radioactive blood obviously mutated Jennifer as it had her cousin, transforming her into the She-Hulk. Much like the Hulk, Jennifer possesses great strength, durability, endurance and a healing factor; unlike her cousin, she almost always retains her full intelligence and personality as She-Hulk.

Fun Fact: She temporarily replaced the Thing in the Fantastic Four for a short time.

Fan Cast: Jennifer Carpenter.

3. Echo (Maya Lopez)

When she was a small girl, Maya Lopez's father, a Cheyenne gangster, was killed by his partner in crime, the Kingpin. The last wish of her father was that Fisk raise the child well, a wish the Kingpin honored, caring for her as if she was his own. Despite being one of the only deaf heroes in the Marvel universe, Echo can duplicate any physical action that she sees, ranging from musical performance and ballet to martial arts and weapon use.

Fun Fact: When acting as Ronin, another hero alias of hers, Maya wears a specially designed armor which makes her appear to be male and allows her to blend into the shadows.

Fan Cast: I know she's already cast in the MCU (Daredevil series), but I really could see Rosario Dawson in this role.

2. Spider-woman (Jessica Drew)

No relation to Spider-man.

Experimented on by Hydra, she was sent to kill Nick Fury. After being shown the true nature of Hydra, she fled the scene and would later would come back as a hero, bounty hunter, private investigator, and finally as a member of the Avengers. Apart from her lost-and-then-found-out history, Hydra connections with a plot to kill Nick Fury, and involvement with many of Marvel's groups (including, the New Avengers, S.W.O.R.D., and the Avengers)--all cool and interesting reads in their own right--Jessica Drew has all the coolest superhuman abilities (strength, speed, stamina, hearing etc), venom blasts, and self-propelled flight, as well as a skilled martial artist, multilingual spy, and acrobat. What I find to be the most original and terrifying power is that her metabolism generates certain types of pheromones that can create fear, elicit attraction and/or repulsion on others, depending on unknown factors which might include gender and mood. Nick Fury's intel classified her as Power Level 8... I couldn't use the word "cool" any more to describe Spider-woman.

Fun Fact: She has no real connection to Spider-man, apart from the name (and a brief relationship with him once).

One of the Avengers founding members, Janet has the ability (thanks to Pym's "Pym Particles") of growing wings, size reduction with gain in strength, and bio-electric blasts. Married to Henry Pym (who suffered from multiple mental illnesses, eventually becoming abusive), Janet was one of the few that could connect with Hank. Despite all the abuse brought on by him (both physical and emotional), she overcomes this to one day lead the Avengers. Because she don't need no man.